Contrary to what the nostalgia industry and PBS pledge-drive specials will claim, the era commonly known as “The Sixties” involved a lot more than just a bunch of upscale white kids getting stoned and laid and calling it a “revolution.”

A lot of people performed a lot of hard work, against real opposition, to help make this a better place for a lot of different folks.

One of the premier examples of this was Roberto Maestas, who died today.

To call Maestas a professional political organizer is to oversimplify the many activities and crusades in which he participated over the years.

But his living legacy is, and will be, El Centro de la Raza. Founded during the early ’70s “Boeing Bust” recession at an abandoned elementary school building, it’s a community and advocacy group devoted to the practical improvement of people’s lives.